


Beggars Would Ride

by Lothiriel84



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Denial of Feelings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 06:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10354644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: Old habits die hard, until you find a reason to want them gone.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [YellowBananaOwl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowBananaOwl/gifts), [fractionallyfoxtrot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fractionallyfoxtrot/gifts).



“Are you – are you smoking, Skip?”

Martin closed his eyes, took a fortifying breath before turning to face his colleague and friend.

“Yes. Yes, I am, Arthur. Well spotted.”

“But – I mean, why?”

He paused, flicking ash from his cigarette onto the tarmac. “I think that’s rather self-explanatory, don’t you?”

“You don’t smoke, Skip,” Arthur said, a faint trace of unhappiness seeping through his tone. “You never smoke.”

Martin’s left arm was now wrapped defensively around his chest. “I used to. Ages ago. Started after another failed attempt at getting my CPL.”

“But you’ve never – not after you joined MJN Air.”

He sighed. “Yes, well, I can’t really afford it, can I? Not with things being – the way they are.”

Arthur was silent for a long moment, his face bearing no trace of his customary cheerfulness. “It’s – it’s because of what I told you the other day, right? I knew I shouldn’t have, I just – can we please forget I ever said it?”

That was when Martin’s fingers started trembling a little, and he glared at the smouldering tip of the cigarette as if it had personally offended him. “It’s not you Arthur. It’s me.”

“Yeah, I get it,” the younger man nodded, a sad smile tugging at his lips. “I’ll just – go and be somewhere else.”

Martin dropped the cigarette, stepped on it as he struggled to find his voice. “I do, you know,” he muttered at length. “Feel the way you feel, about – things. I just – don’t think it’s fair on you, that’s all.”

“Why?”

Arthur was now standing right in front of him, earnest brown eyes searching his face. Martin chuckled humourlessly, waved a hand to vaguely indicate everything that was wrong about his situation. “You deserve better, Arthur.”

“I am a grown-up, you know,” Arthur replied, more forcefully than he would have expected him to. “I know I don’t look like one, sometimes, but I am. You don’t need to protect me, or – or anything.”

The next thing he knew, Martin was clutching at the soft fabric of Arthur’s jumper, their noses bumping briefly before he corrected the trajectory.

“You taste like cigarette smoke, Skip,” Arthur giggled as they parted for air. “I’m not sure I like it.”

“No more smoking,” he promised, and made a mental note to leave the rest of the packet with Dirk the groundsman. The man would probably appreciate the gesture, as well as make sure he wouldn’t get anywhere near the stuff again.

“Your Mum is going to kill us,” he added almost as an afterthought, but he was laughing now, and in that moment he knew that Douglas was right. Carolyn would never put herself between her son and his happiness, and as long as Martin proved that his intentions were genuine he would probably get away with nothing more than an eye roll, and a warning.

“No, she won’t,” Arthur declared with conviction, his arms still looped around Martin’s waist. “But it’s probably better if we go somewhere where she can’t see us before we kiss again.”

“How about that scrap DC-10 fuselage out round the back of the hangar?” Martin suggested with a conspiratorial grin. “You know the one, where Douglas’s ridiculous pub used to be.”

“Good thinking,” Arthur grinned back, closing both eyes in a failed attempt at winking. “See you there in ten.”

He watched as Arthur ran off across the tarmac, then pretended to wander off in the general direction of the mechanic’s loading bay. He felt a bit as if he was fifteen again, and he looked forward to every second of it.


End file.
